Haazinu & Sukkot
What Makes a Fruit Beautiful?
Dear Friend,
The story is told about a Chassidic Rebbe who would go to great lengths and expenses to obtain the most beautiful etrog available in order to perform the mitzvah in the best possible manner every Sukkot.
Each day of the holiday, after he himself would perform the mitzvah of taking the Four Kinds, it was his custom to allow others to use his lulav and etrog as well. Many would avail themselves of this privilege.
One day, after the rabbi’s etrog was returned to him all battered and stained by hundreds of hands, he was asked: “Why do you allow so many people to use your etrog? Look at what’s happened to it! It has lost its hiddur, its beauty!”
“Why,” the Rabbi replied, “this is the most beautiful etrog in the world! What greater beauty can there be for an etrog than the fact that hundreds of Jews have performed a mitzvah with it?”
The lesson is clear. If you have your own set of Four Kinds, beautify it by helping another Jew perform the mitzvah. And if you don’t yet have your own set, contact your local Chabad rabbi to either obtain a set or help beautify his!
Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
When a challenge seems too daunting to confront, some people simply choose to avoid it. The Rebbe Maharash, Rabbi Shmuel, takes a different approach.
The seven days of Sukkot—celebrated by dwelling in the sukkah, taking the Four Kinds, and rejoicing—is the holiday when we expose ourselves to the elements in covered huts, commemorating G‑d's sheltering our ancestors as they traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Four Kinds express our unity and our belief in G‑d’s omnipresence. Coming after the solemn High Holidays, it is a time of joy and happiness
Each person has something to offer. Each person has a talent or gift that can help another.
Sage advice that you’ve heard time and time again and that you’d be much better off disregarding.
He was so absorbed in his study that he did not even hear a thief enter the sukkah and deftly remove all the valuable utensils from the table.
Looking at your world from Above, all is good.
Looking at your world from within, things don’t always look so nice.
Until you connect your world below to the world above. Then the goodness flows downward without distortion.
How do you make that connection? By clinging tightly above.
By putting all your trust in G‑d.
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